May 27, 2008

The Falkirk Wheel (Scotland) is a remarkable & elegant mechanical marvel & is the only rotating boatlift in the world which is also been recognized as an inspirational sculpture for the 21st Century. It's a rotating boatlift connecting the Forth & Clyde Canal with the Union Canal & sited in a natural open amphitheatre near Falkirk. It can carry eight or more boats at a time & takes about 60 minutes for single time.

This Millennium Link was an ambitious £84.5m project & the designers had a main objective in their minds & it was to create a functional boatlift that could raise & lower boats swiftly. The difference in the levels of the two canals at the wheel is 24 metres, which is equivalent to the height of an eight-story building. Yet the incredible civil engineering made it possible.

The Falkirk Wheel's various parts were constructed & assembled at Butterley Engineering's Steelworks in Derbyshire. The whole structure weighed about 1,200 tonnes of steel, when a team assembled it to the accuracy of just 10 mm to ensure a perfect final fit. When the structure was transported to Falkirk it took 35 lorries & more than 15,000 bolts were matched with 45,000 boltholes, & each bolt was hand tightened. Once the structure was ready on the ground, it was placed by a crane in five large divisions into position.

And it was in May 2002 the Queen opened 'The Falkirk Wheel' something which was never been built before anywhere in the world.

Its has a diameter of 35 meters (110 ft), two axe-shaped arm, water-filled caissons boasting an 80,000-gallon capacity each, capable of lifting combined capacity of 600 tonnes & rotates through 180° in five & a half minutes while using very little power. Its surprisingly efficient it takes just 22.5 kilowatts (30.2 hp) to power the electric motors.